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Article: Children's friendships and learning in school: Cognitive enhancement through social interaction?

TitleChildren's friendships and learning in school: Cognitive enhancement through social interaction?
Authors
KeywordsReferences (68) View In Table Layout
Issue Date2005
PublisherThe British Psychological Society. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.bps.org.uk/publications/jEP_1.cfm
Citation
British Journal Of Educational Psychology, 2005, v. 75 n. 4, p. 521-538 How to Cite?
AbstractBackground. Recent literature has identified that children's performance on cognitive (or problem-solving) tasks can be enhanced when undertaken as a joint activity among pairs of pupils. Performance on this 'social' activity will require quality relationships between pupils, leading some researchers to argue that friendships are characterized by these quality relationships and, therefore, that friendship grouping should be used more frequently within classrooms. Aims. Children's friendship grouping may appear to be a reasonable basis for cognitive development in classrooms, although there is only inconsistent evidence to support this argument. The inconsistency may be explained by the various bases for friendship, and how friendship is affected by cultural contexts of gender and schooling. This study questions whether classroom-based friendship pairings will perform consistently better on a cognitive task than acquaintance pairings, taking into account gender, age, and ability level of children. The study also explores the nature of school-based friendship described by young children. Sample. 72 children were paired to undertake science reasoning tasks (SRTs). Pairings represented friendship (versus acquaintance), sex (male and female pairings), ability (teacher-assessed high, medium, and low), and age (children in Years 1, 3, and 5 in a primary school). Method. A small-scale quasi-experimental design was used to assess (friendship- or acquaintance-based) paired performance on SRTs. Friendship pairs were later interviewed about qualities and activities that characterized their friendships. Results. Girls' friendship pairings were found to perform at the highest SRT levels and boys' friendship pairing performed at the lowest levels. Both boy and girl acquaintance pairings performed at mid-SRT levels. These findings were consistent across Year (in school) levels and ability levels. Interviews revealed that male and female friendship pairs were likely to participate in different types of activity, with girls beingschool-inclusive and boys being school-exclusive. Conclusion. Recommendations to use friendship as a basis for classroom grouping for cognitive tasks may facilitate performance of some pairings, but may also inhibit the performance of others. This is shown very clearly with regard to gender. Some of the difference in cognitive task performance may be explained by distinct, cultural (and social capital) orientations to friendship activities, with girls integrating school and educational considerations into friendship, and boys excluding school and educational considerations. © 2005 The British Psychological Society.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/92975
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 3.1
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 1.738
ISI Accession Number ID
References

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorKutnick, Pen_HK
dc.contributor.authorKington, Aen_HK
dc.date.accessioned2010-09-22T05:05:40Z-
dc.date.available2010-09-22T05:05:40Z-
dc.date.issued2005en_HK
dc.identifier.citationBritish Journal Of Educational Psychology, 2005, v. 75 n. 4, p. 521-538en_HK
dc.identifier.issn0007-0998en_HK
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/92975-
dc.description.abstractBackground. Recent literature has identified that children's performance on cognitive (or problem-solving) tasks can be enhanced when undertaken as a joint activity among pairs of pupils. Performance on this 'social' activity will require quality relationships between pupils, leading some researchers to argue that friendships are characterized by these quality relationships and, therefore, that friendship grouping should be used more frequently within classrooms. Aims. Children's friendship grouping may appear to be a reasonable basis for cognitive development in classrooms, although there is only inconsistent evidence to support this argument. The inconsistency may be explained by the various bases for friendship, and how friendship is affected by cultural contexts of gender and schooling. This study questions whether classroom-based friendship pairings will perform consistently better on a cognitive task than acquaintance pairings, taking into account gender, age, and ability level of children. The study also explores the nature of school-based friendship described by young children. Sample. 72 children were paired to undertake science reasoning tasks (SRTs). Pairings represented friendship (versus acquaintance), sex (male and female pairings), ability (teacher-assessed high, medium, and low), and age (children in Years 1, 3, and 5 in a primary school). Method. A small-scale quasi-experimental design was used to assess (friendship- or acquaintance-based) paired performance on SRTs. Friendship pairs were later interviewed about qualities and activities that characterized their friendships. Results. Girls' friendship pairings were found to perform at the highest SRT levels and boys' friendship pairing performed at the lowest levels. Both boy and girl acquaintance pairings performed at mid-SRT levels. These findings were consistent across Year (in school) levels and ability levels. Interviews revealed that male and female friendship pairs were likely to participate in different types of activity, with girls beingschool-inclusive and boys being school-exclusive. Conclusion. Recommendations to use friendship as a basis for classroom grouping for cognitive tasks may facilitate performance of some pairings, but may also inhibit the performance of others. This is shown very clearly with regard to gender. Some of the difference in cognitive task performance may be explained by distinct, cultural (and social capital) orientations to friendship activities, with girls integrating school and educational considerations into friendship, and boys excluding school and educational considerations. © 2005 The British Psychological Society.en_HK
dc.languageengen_HK
dc.publisherThe British Psychological Society. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.bps.org.uk/publications/jEP_1.cfmen_HK
dc.relation.ispartofBritish Journal of Educational Psychologyen_HK
dc.subjectReferences (68) View In Table Layouten_HK
dc.titleChildren's friendships and learning in school: Cognitive enhancement through social interaction?en_HK
dc.typeArticleen_HK
dc.identifier.emailKutnick, P: pkutnick@hku.hken_HK
dc.identifier.authorityKutnick, P=rp01414en_HK
dc.description.naturelink_to_subscribed_fulltext-
dc.identifier.doi10.1348/000709904X24591en_HK
dc.identifier.pmid16318677-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-28044436377en_HK
dc.relation.referenceshttp://www.scopus.com/mlt/select.url?eid=2-s2.0-28044436377&selection=ref&src=s&origin=recordpageen_HK
dc.identifier.volume75en_HK
dc.identifier.issue4en_HK
dc.identifier.spage521en_HK
dc.identifier.epage538en_HK
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000233664800001-
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdomen_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridKutnick, P=6602743302en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridKington, A=8632617800en_HK
dc.identifier.citeulike397872-
dc.identifier.issnl0007-0998-

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